4. ABSTRACT
Unlike the usual problems in the society we
had chosen this concept which may be
considered as less importance but if it is left
uncared may become one of the serious
issue in our society.
Thus we had done this project with the help
of our teacher, parents and friends.
So we just welcome to look into our ideas.
5. What is superstition ?
Superstitions are beliefs that
certain things or events will
bring good or bad luck.
Every culture has
superstitions.
6. LET US SEE
SOME OF THE
SUPERSITIONS
AROUND OUR
ENVIRONMENT !!
7. •A dog howling at night
chills the blood – a portent
of approaching death.
8. •Hiccups indicate
someone is thinking of you.
• An itchy eye refers to
someone maligning you, or
your envy of someone.
9. A barber shop remains
closed on Tuesday as
hair should not be cut
on that day
13. THIS IS SOME OF THE SUPERSTITIONS OF
OTHER COUNTRIES
1.Some people carry a rabbit’s foot on a key ring and
think four-leaf clovers ( a clover with four leaves
instead of the usual three).
2.The Americans think that knocking on wood
prevents good luck changing to bad, so they often
use the expression “ knock on wood”.
14. Let us see some
of the Japanese
superstitions?
15. In Japan there are certain things they will not do because it may
cause bad luck.
A few examples are:
The number four:
The number four is considered inauspicious because it is
pronounced the same as the word for death (shi). Therefore, one
should not make gift that consist of four pieces, etc.
In some hotels and hospitals the room number four is skipped.
Stick chopsticks into the rice:
Do not stick your chopsicks into your food generally, but
especially not into rice, because only at funerals, chopsticks are
stuck into the rice which is put onto the altar.
16. Give food from chopstick to chopstick:
This is only done with the bones of the cremated body at
funerals .
Sleeping towards the North:
Do not sleep towards the North because bodies are laid
down like that.
Cut nails at night:
If you cut your nails at night, you will not be with your
parents when they die.
Lie down after eating:
If you lie down immediately after eating, you will become
a cow.
17. Whistle in the night:
If you whistle in the night, a snake will come to you.
Black cat:
There are also some imported superstitions such as the believe
that black cats crossing the street in front of you cause bad luck.
In many shrines, temples and souvenir shops, amulets are sold
that are supposed to bring luck, safety or good fortune. There are
amulets for money, health, love, success on exams, safety on the
streets, etc. Small pieces of paper (omikuji) that predict your
future are also available. These pieces of paper are tied around
the branch of a tree after reading; either to make the good fortune
come true or to avoid the predicted bad fortune.
18. R EFERENCE :
Since it is a vast subject to deal with we
have taken some reference from available webpage
which we feel helpful for us to make people
understand more effectively, moreover some
scientist‟s observations and thoughts are provided
here.
Let us go through it !!!
20. FIRST-FOOTING
It is lucky when a tall man walks into a house
first in the New Year
Is this a scientific hypothesis?
Why not?
Is it something about the hypothesis?
Is it something about
our attitudes?
Is it something about
how it was reached?
21. OUTLINE
Elements of superstitions
Superstition, magic & religion
3 different views of superstition
Superstition as science
What is the difference?
Empirical limits
Conclusions
23. ELEMENTS OF A SUPERSTITION
Superstitious belief
„Action‟
Crossing fingers
Can be just an event – Friday 13
th
„Effect‟
Potentially desirable or undesirable event
Connection
Causation/conjuration or prediction/divination
Explanation
Luck
No natural explanation
Supernatural explanation
24. ELEMENTS OF A SUPERSTITION
Superstitious practice
Taking or avoiding the „action‟
Avoiding black cats
Success uncertain
Function
Manifest
To avoid or bring
about the „effect‟
Latent
Can be very different
First-footing again
Predicting or causing?
25. ELEMENTS OF A SUPERSTITION
The link between beliefs and practices
Generally problematic
Focussing on practices
Skinner‟s behaviourism
Beliefs secondary
Focussing on beliefs
Superstition satisfying internal needs
Practices secondary
27. SUPERSTITION, MAGIC & RELIGION
Magic & religion
E. Durkheim 1912
Sacred vs. profane
Religion
Social function
Magic
Individual function
D. S. Wilson 2002
Evolutionary explanation of
religion
Social function as group-selection
28. SUPERSTITION, MAGIC & RELIGION
Magic & superstition
Magic
Traditional societies
Superstition
Modern society
Relation?
Different phenomena
Same phenomenon / different contexts
Education and superstition (Jahoda 1969)
Jumper example
29. SUPERSTITION, MAGIC & RELIGION
Religion & superstition
Deisidaimonia
Misplaced fear of daimons
Theophrastus, circa 300 BC
Superstition is false religion
Worship of demons
Aquinas, circa 1250 AD
Atheist generalisation
All religion is false
Therefore, superstition is all religion
Can differentiate religion & superstition
Some religious practices superstitious
Intercessory prayer
30. 3 VIEWS OF SUPERSTITION
Superstition as fantasy
Superstition as rhetoric
Superstition as science
31. 3 VIEWS OF SUPERSTITION
Superstition as fantasy
Attempted retreat from threatening/
uncontrollable reality
Anxiety-reduction (Malinowski 1925)
Retaining feeling of control (Case et all 2004)
“The man under the sway of impotent fury or dominated
by thwarted hate spontaneously clenches his fists and
carries out imaginary thrusts at his enemy, muttering
imprecations, casting words of hatred and anger against
him.” – Malinowski “Magic, Science, and Religion”
32. 3 VIEWS OF SUPERSTITION
Superstition as rhetoric
Attempted communication
Use of language to induce motion in things (Burke
1969)
Costly signalling (Tambiah 1990)
Accepting authority (Palmer 1989)
“By communicating acceptance of a supernatural claim
one is communicating a willingness to accept the
speaker‟s influence unskeptically.” - Palmer “The ritual
taboos of fishermen”
33. 3 VIEWS OF SUPERSTITION
Superstition as science
Attempt to understand/control
the world
Primitive science (Frazer 1890)
Adventitious reinforcement
(Skinner 1947)
Biased cognitive heuristics
(Rozin & Nemeroff 1980)
“Magic is a spurious system of natural law as well as a
fallacious guide of conduct; it is a false science as well
as an abortive art.” - Frazer, Golden Bough
34. SUPERSTITION AS SCIENCE?
Question of focus
Primitive science
Adventitious
reinforcement
Biased cognitive
heuristics
35. SUPERSTITION AS SCIENCE?
Question of focus
Superstitious beliefs vs. scientific beliefs
Superstitious methods vs. scientific methods
Both options incomplete
Would „superstitious‟ beliefs be scientific if arrived at
scientifically?
Could they be arrived at scientifically?
Is there such a thing as „magical thinking‟?
Or is it that thinking sometimes leads to magical beliefs?
36. SUPERSTITION AS SCIENCE?
Primitive science
Tylor 1871, Frazer 1890, Levy-Bruhl 1910
Superstition identified with primitive societies/minds
Science identified with modern societies/minds
Progress seen as directed „evolution‟
Enlightenment / Intellectualist position
Rationality expels superstition
37. SUPERSTITION AS SCIENCE?
Adventitious reinforcement
B.F. Skinner 1947, S. Vyse 1997
Superstition in a pigeon
Skinner box
Operant conditioning
Independent reinforcement schedule
„Superstitious behaviour‟
“Operant conditioning is
not just for rats and
pigeons” - Vyse
38. SUPERSTITION AS SCIENCE?
Adventitious reinforcement
Matrix task
4 x 4 matrix
Move dot from top left to
bottom right
Task: Find out when points are gained
Points awarded randomly
Numerous theories put forward
Similar situations
Malfunctioning light switch
Conditioning as basis for understanding science?
39. SUPERSTITION AS SCIENCE?
Biased cognitive heuristics
Domain-specific
Generally effective
Systematically biased
Heuristics and biases (Kahneman & Tversky 1974)
Bounded rationality (H. Simon 1972)
Scientific methods as heuristics
(W. Wimsatt 2007)
Contagion heuristic
Rozin & Nemeroff 1980
40. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Truth& empirical
adequacy
Natural vs.
supernatural
Sacred vs. profane
41. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Truth & empirical adequacy
Superstitions as false causal beliefs
Often used definition
Many false causal beliefs, some scientific
Superstitions not just false but (known to be) empirically
inadequate
Scientific beliefs rejected due to empirical inadequacy
Can not equate Newton‟s physics with his astrology
Is „onto something‟
But superstitious beliefs „look different‟
42. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Natural vs. supernatural
Superstitions as supernatural claims
Problems
Vague concept
Circularity?
Distinction much later than category
Correlation between superstitious and pseudoscientific beliefs
Succubi become aliens
Post hoc explanations
Is „onto something‟
43. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Sacred vs. profane
Durkheim
Explaining a cognitive category in terms of a social
phenomenon?
Is „onto something‟
But, again, superstitions „look different‟
45. EMPIRICAL LIMITS
B. van Fraassen
The Scientific Image 1980
Limits of observability
Actual empirical limitations
Ability to discern small objects
Limits change over time
Agnosticism about unobservable
claims
Challenging scientific attitudes
Observable/detectable distinction
Distinction generally rejected
Is anything unobservable?
Significance of social attitudes
46. EMPIRICAL LIMITS
Observability & superstitions
How observable are superstitious claims?
Connections between „actions‟ and „events‟
Observable as correlations
Explanations for the connections
The claims hard to observe
Attitudes object to observation
Render superstitious explanations effectively unobservable
„Superempirical‟ rather than supernatural
47. EMPIRICAL LIMITS
Observability and functions
Manifest and latent function
Manifest function requires observability
Religious connections unobservable
Latent (social) function more important
In superstitions only explanations unobservable
Scientists aim to make explanations observable
A vital difference
48. EMPIRICAL LIMITS
Agnosticism about explanations
Scientific explanations?
Scientists take realist view of explanations
Pursue evidence for their truth
Agnosticism not justified
Superstitious explanations
Explanations in practically untestable terms
Testing of explanations discouraged
Agnosticism is not enough
Agnosticism about explanations is not scientific
49. CONCLUSIONS
Differences
Similarities
Methods: Development
Methods: Use of
of new heuristics
heuristics
Beliefs: A realist attitude
Beliefs: Often hard to
to explanations leading to
test explanations put
pursuit of testing
forward
50. From the above explanations and
observations it is clear that supertitions is one thing
that is related to our own attitude and thoughts
related to our enviroment. Thus we have created
some ideas to make peoples aware of this thing such
that they will urge the future generation in a correct
path.
Thank you for watching our ideas.